Flights are being disrupted in parts of the UK after National Air Traffic Services was hit by its second technical issue in a fortnight.

A number of departing and arriving flights at Scottish airports have been severely delayed, with disruption affecting Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.

The fault has been reported at Nats’s second control centre, at Prestwick in Scotland.

Airlines including British Airways and easyJet have reported immediate cancellations. A total of 24 flights have so far been cancelled across UK airports, according to the analysts Cirium. However, many flights continue to operate.

The issue comes less than two weeks after a major incident at Nats control centre in England disrupted travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers, and only three days after the release of an initial report into that incident by Nats promising to “continually improve the critical service we provide”.

A Nats spokesperson said: “Our engineers are continuing to investigate the issue at our Prestwick centre in Scotland. Airports south of Manchester are broadly unaffected, however flights heading north and flights departing Scottish airports are now subject to some delay.

“Passengers should check with their airlines. This is unrelated to the issue two weeks ago. We apologise for the disruption.”

An easyJet spokesperson said: “A Nats air traffic control system failure in its Prestwick centre is causing delays to flights with some unable to operate. This, once again, calls into question the resilience of Nats’s systems and demonstrates the need for firm actions to prevent these repeated failures.”

A BA spokesperson said: “Yet another technical fault with Nats means some of our customers are likely to experience disruption to their travel plans today. This is disappointing, and while it is an issue that is entirely out of our control, we’re doing everything we can to limit the impact on customers and are keeping them updated.”